The first GreenPort Cruise conference will take place on Tuesday, 13th September 2011 at the Hotel Atlantic Kempinski, Hamburg, Germany.

Held in association with Cruise Gateway, an EU Interreg IVB North Sea Region project that has been set up to consider ways of encouraging and promoting Sustainable Cruise activities in the North Sea Region (NSR), the programme will include sessions on:

The relationship between Cities and Passenger Ports, focussing on costs and benefits, congestion management and Planning and integration issues.

Included within the programme will be a tour of the new Aida Cruise Ship at the New Hamburg Cruise Centre II (Altona).

The cruise industry is the fastest growing tourism sector at the moment. The cruise lines are adding berth capacities to the market, the ships get even bigger, and an increasing source market can be registered.

The Partners of the new European cruise project ‘CRUISE GATEWAY North Sea’ are looking well ahead. They are considering ways of encouraging and promoting cruise activities in the North Sea Region based on the common thread of sustainability – including the promotion of environmental awareness and eco-friendly transport structures, and avoiding congestion. The aim is to create a raised awareness of the NSR as a cruise destination. Much progress and work is being done on making cruise ships as environmentally friendly as possible by the cruise lines themselves. On the land side of the cruise industry, another particular focus is energy consumption and green issues on the quay side and land based cruise tourism, another topic for CRUISE GATEWAY. The aim is to contribute to improved cruise accessibility in the NSR on a sustainable basis, enabling comprehensive economic and social benefits.

The rising price of fuel could prove a major advantage to ports in the EU North Sea Region as they seek to develop and promote much more cruise activity. Cruise lines are very conscious of maximising their fuel economy and are tending to favour itineraries which enable them to steam more slowly in order. That means they are looking for ports which are quite close together – offering a short hop to the next destination. CRUISE GATEWAY will develop solutions with certain horizons that will also be applicable in ten years’ time.

Further details about the programme will be released shortly, for more information or to submit a paper please email: congress@greenport.com or call +44 (0) 1329 825335.